GAS PLANT RELIABILITY TRIP

ANALYSIS: A QUICK TOOL FOR

PLANT MANAGEMENT
Stefan Winter and
Keith Worrell

Stefan Winter

Winter completed his chemical engineering education in

Germany and Austria. He has an MS from the Technical
University Aachen and a PhD from the Technical
University Vienna. He joined Saudi Aramco in 1998 at
Uthmaniyah Gas Plant after working for engineering
and operating companies in Germany and Canada. He is
now with the Marjan Offshore Producing Department in
Capital Projects.
Worrell is a 1974 graduate of North Carolina State
University in Raleigh. He is the supervisor of maintenance quality assurance at Saudi Aramcos Uthmaniyah
Gas Plant. Worrell has 27 years of experience in maintenance engineering, with the past 10 years concentrated on
reliability and condition-based maintenance.

ABSTRACT
Newcomers to any production facility need to quickly learn where problems occur,
frequency of repair trips, which equipment requires repairs, the urgency of repairs
and what repair expenses are justifiable. Reviewing trip data identifies problems and
helps employees allocate resources for solutions. A trip analysis, using data from
Keith Worrel

approximately 250 trip reports from 1996 to 2001, was undertaken to make this
job easier. These reports yielded a significant amount of useful data. Detailed information about the cost of each trip and the cost of each repair is not easily or
quickly accessible even when trips are correctly recorded in the distributed control
system (DCS), therefore indices for the cost of each outage and its repair will be
applied at Uthmaniyah Gas Plant (UGP). The relationship between outage costs
and cost of repairs will reflect the urgency or priority of the problem. The hypothetical example below easily shows the procedure.

62 SAUDI ARAMCO JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FALL 2002

matrix (fig. 1) offers an overview of the trips. The concerned equipment and the reason are marked with an x.

L I S T O F O U TA G E S O U TA G E M AT R I X
All available reports about outages and equipment failures
were collected. These outages were listed with date, equipment with frequent failures and reasons for failure. In this
list it became obvious that some equipment and certain reasons were frequently repeated. Therefore, fig. 1 includes the
section equipment with frequent failures. For example:
On the line with #28, the boiler is the equipment problem and the fuse is the reason. A hypothetical outage

30

16-Dec-00

3:16

29

12-Dec-00

3:16

28

3-Dec-00

5:45

27

29-Nov-00

5:45

26

21-Nov-00

16:54

25

21-Nov-00

9:05

24

10-Nov-00

2:10

23

12-Sep-00

8:30

22

23-Aug-00

6:25

21

7-Aug-00

7:58

20

5-Aug-00

13:10

19

29-Jul-00

23:30

18

23-Jul-00

14:50

17

30-May-00

11:37

16

15-May-00

8:36

15

14-May-00

3:46

14

9-May-00

14:30

13

3-May-00

12:45

12

21-Apr-00

13:53

11

20-Apr-00

14:32

10

16-Apr-00

2:52

15-Apr-00

8:45

12-Apr-00

17:40

28-Mar-00

16:34

22-Mar-00

3:30

19-Mar-00

12:05

15-Mar-00

20:08

12-Mar-00

9:17

5-Mar-00

12:45

6-Feb-00

2:52

An outage index will be used to evaluate the importance of

equipment failures. Another index will be used for the repair.
The repair index indicates if a cheap quick fix can eliminate the problem or if a million dollar repair is required.

Else

Bearings

Vibration

Scanner Failure

Valve/Solenoid

InstrumentationGeneral

Oil

Instrument Air

Electrical-General

Loose Wiring

Relay

Fuse

Loss of Power

Reason

Else

Burner in SRU

Main Substation

Substation 1

Compressor 2

Compressor 1

Pump 3

Equipment with Frequent Failures

Pump 2

TIME

Pump 1

DATE

Boiler 1

O U TA G E A N D R E PA I R I N D E X

x
x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x
x

x
x

Fig. 1. Outage Matrix

SAUDI ARAMCO JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FALL 2002 63

Outage Index

The cost magnitude of plant trips will be reflected in the

outage index. The outages can be differentiated in total
plant shut down, partial plant shut down, cascading partial
plant shut down or no plant shut down. For a more
detailed analysis, a further detailed separation with more
indices might be required.
Outage Index 4: A total plant shut down.
Outage Index 3: A partial plant shut down. A partial
plant shutdown causes reduced production. An example is that a reduction of steam boilers reduces plant
production, except during wintertime when less gas
production is required.
Outage Index 2: A cascading partial plant shut down
occurs when equipment failure can easily cause a partial plant shut down. An example is when a sulfur
recovery unit (SRU) is overhauled, another SRU fails
and aid gas has to be sent to the acid gas flair.
Outage Index 1: There will be no plant shut down. No
plant shut down will occur in the hypothetical example
if pump 1 trips and if pump 1 quickly comes back on
line there will be no direct impact on plant production.
Repair Index

The magnitude of the repair cost will be reflected in the

repair index with the question being the cost of the repair.
For a more detailed analysis a further detailed separation
with more indices might be required.
Repair Index 1: Some repairs are small, quick and easy.
Some outages can be fixed during the night shift without involving engineering. For the cheap quick fix
Repair Index 1 will be used for estimated costs of
lower than $10,000.
Repair Index 2: Other outages involve more engineering
or operators who require some training. Estimated
costs of between $10,000 to $50,000 can be expected.
Repair Index 3: If repairs require a change of design that
includes an engineering package or heavy equipment,
like cranes, costs of over $50,000 can be expected.
Index Ratio

The Index Ratio divides the outage index with the

repair index. Two extremes document the purpose of the
index ratio:
Extreme 1: High Index Ratio
A high index ratio reflects high priority. A high
index ratio results from a high outage index and a low
repair index.

64 SAUDI ARAMCO JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FALL 2002

Example: a cheap fuse used in repair index 1 can cause

an expensive total plant outage with the outage index 4.
The ratio will be 4/1 and it will be seen in the index matrix
shown below. It is obvious that this fuse will be given a
high priority.
Extreme 2: Low Index Ratio
A low index ratio reflects low priority. A low index ratio
results from a low outage index and a high repair index.
Example: pump 1 (hypothetical example), with a repair
index 3, does not cause any immediate partial plant outage
with an outage index 1. The ratio here would be 1/3. It is
self explanatory that this pump is lower on the priority list
than the above-mentioned fuse.

I N D E X R AT I O M AT R I X
The index ratio matrix covers all possible index ratios.

Index Matrix

Outage
Index

0.5

0.33

0.67

1.5

1.00

1.33

Repair Index
Fig. 2. Index ratio matrix

APPLYING THE INDICES AND INDEX RATIO IN THE OUTAGE MATRIX

The index ratio has to be applied in the outage matrix. This

will be completed with the following steps. These steps are
shown in fig. 3.
Step 1: One additional column is inserted for the
estimated outage index.
Step 2: One additional column is inserted for the
estimated repair index.
Step 3: One additional column is inserted for the
index ratio.
Step 4: The index ratio is calculated.
Step 5: The calculated ratio is transferred into the field
with the equipment with frequent failures.
Step 6: The calculated ratio is transferred into the field
with reasons.
Step 7: Insert row for average index ratios.
Step 8: In this row the average index ratios are calculated. (Averages can be calculated for different time
periods: yearly, quarterly, etc.)

Equipment with
Frequent Failures

Average Index Ratio

Frequency

16-Dec-00

3:16

0.3

29

12-Dec-00

3:16

1.5

1.5

5:45

3.0

3.0

2.0

Step 9

26

21-Nov-00

16:54

0.7

0.7

21-Nov-00

9:05

0.7

2:10

1.0

23
12-Sep-00
Step
7

8:30

1.5

22

23-Aug-00

6:25

1.5

21

7-Aug-00

7:58

20

5-Aug-00

13:10

3.0

19

29-Jul-00

23:30

3.0

18

23-Jul-00

14:50

1.0

17

30-May-00

11:37

1.0

16

15-May-00

8:36

1.5

15

14-May-00

3:46

0.7

14

9-May-00

14:30

0.7

13

3-May-00

12:45

0.7

12

21-Apr-00

13:53

0.5

11

20-Apr-00

14:32

1.5

10

16-Apr-00

2:52

1.5

15-Apr-00

8:45

0.5

12-Apr-00

17:40

3.0

28-Mar-00

16:34

1.0

22-Mar-00

3:30

0.5

19-Mar-00

12:05

1.5

15-Mar-00

20:08

1.0

12-Mar-00

9:17

1.0

5-Mar-00

12:45

1.5

6-Feb-00

2:52

1.0

Else

Bearings

Oil

Instrument Air
1

0.8 0.6 1.0

1

Step 8

Step
11
2.0

2.0

0.7

0.7

0.7

1.0

1.0

1.5

1.5

Step 5

Step
1
1.04

3.0

5:45

10-Nov-00

1.0

0.3

29-Nov-00

24

1.5 0.5 0.9

0.3

27

25

Electrical-General

Loose Wirering

Relay

Fuse

Loss of Power

Else

Burner in SRU

Main Substation

Substation 1

Compressor 2

Compressor 1

Pump 3

Pump 2

2.0 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.7 0.7 1.5 2.0 2.0 0.5 1.5 2.7 3.0

30

Step
10
28
3-Dec-00

Pump 1

Boiler 1

Step 3

Index Ratio

Step 2

Repair Index

Outage Index

Step 1

Vibration

Reason

Scanner Failure

TIME Costs

Valve/Solenoid

DATE

Instrumentation - General

1.5

1.5

1.0

Step 6

3.0

1.0

3.0
3.0

3.0

1.0

1.0
1.0

1.0

1.5

1.5
0.7

0.7
0.7

0.7

0.7

0.7

0.5

0.5

1.5

1.5
1.5

1.5

0.5

0.5

3.0

3.0
1.0

1.0
0.5

0.5

1.5

1.5

1.0

1.0

1.0

1.0
1.5
1.0

1.5
1.0

Fig. 3. Outage matrix with index ratio

SAUDI ARAMCO JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FALL 2002 65

 Step 9: From here the priorities for the repair are

obvious: the equipment or reasons with the high
index ratio.
Step 10: Insert row for frequency.
Step 11: In this row frequencies are calculated. The
frequency shows how often an outage happens. (They
can be calculated for different time periods: yearly,
quarterly, etc.)

O P E R AT I N G P L A N
The operating plan documents the future investments and
intentions of a production facility. Applying the hypothetical example in fig. 3: fuses, relays, boiler 1, main
substation, burner in SRU should be part of the operation
plan for the following years. Besides the operating plans,
funding for the electrical capital projects and single-point
failure study have to be considered at UGP.

S U M M A RY
Learning where problems occur, frequency of repair trips,
which equipment requires repairs, the urgency of the
repairs and what repair expenses are justifiable are important details in running a production facility. When
reviewing trip data using indices, employees can quickly
identify problems and allocate resources for solutions. In
trip analyses, using only 30 hypothetical repair trips,
detailed information about the cost of each trip and the
cost of each repair is not available, therefore indices for the
cost of each outage and its repair are used. Index ratios, the
relationship between outage costs and repair costs are
found by dividing the outage index by the repair index calculated in a spreadsheet format. The averages of the index
ratios, the calculated frequency of the equipment failures
and the trip reason document this urgency and priority. The
method of using indices is applied at UGP resulting in
trends that are readily visible, thus justifying use of trip
analyses in parts of future budgets and operating plans.

L I T E R AT U R E
The following literature is part of the background of this trip
analysis: Risk-Based Management, A Reliability-Centered
Approach (Richard B. Jones, Gulf Publishing Company,
ISBN 0-88415-785-7). It is available in Saudi Aramco
libraries and includes literature references. An Engineering
Standard regarding trip analysis can be developed.

REFERENCES
A version of this article appeared in the May 2002 issue of
Hydrocarbon Procesing.

66 SAUDI ARAMCO JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FALL 2002